Canadian Open Rounds 8 & 9

In round 8 I was paired as white against FM Ashton, a 2300+ FIDE player from England. The opening phase was interesting as Ashton played a move that I have never seen before, despite playing over a hundred games (mostly blitz) in this line. White's last move was 8.d5 and black responded 8...Na5!?

I believe I reacted well, and my decision to sacrifice a pawn to win an exchange is approved of by Rybka.

9. Nc1 c5 10. a3 b6 11. b4 Nb7 12. Nd3 Nh5 13. Qd2 f5 14. Be2 Bd7 15. g3 Rc8 16. Rb1 cxb4 17.axb4 Rxc4

The critical middlegame position. White has two ways to win the exchange - unfortunately, I chose the wrong way. My thought process went something like, "I don't want to play Nc5 because those connected pawns on the queenside look scary. I will play Nxe5 when he gets two knights for the rook, but look at his knights. They are on the edge of the board and are useless!"

Well, it didn't take long for Ashton to recycle those knights to useful squares and crush me. 0-1

In round 9 I was black against Paul LeBlanc, a 1950 FIDE player from BC. This game was one-sided, and although I'm sure Paul just had an off day, I have a feeling our conversation before the game had some affect on his play.

Before the round started I checked the pairings in the hall to see which board I was on, and as I made my way to the board I noticed that Jack was sitting in my seat, talking with my opponent. I found out later that Jack and Paul have known each other for years. As Jack was leaving he introduced me to Paul and mentioned that we were friends and were staying together at Yan's place. As I sat down Paul asked me how I knew Jack, and in my response I alluded to "looking at lots of chess games together".

In the context of our conversation it may have seemed like I meant that Jack had helped me prepare specifically for Paul. This was not my intent as I hadn't prepared for Paul at all, but I have to wonder if Paul's collapse in this game was a result of this double entendre.

Another Classical Dutch! Up until now my opponent has somewhat followed theory's recommendations, although the configuration with Qc2 and Rb1 is rather unusual. Having said that, white's queenside play is what he has to do here, so Rb1 makes sense.

Around here my opponent made some strange choices.

14.e4?! Nxe4 15. Nxe4 fxe4 16. Qxe4?? Bf5 0-1